Details

CPU Clock Rate

3.4GHz

CPU Temperature While Idle

27.0° C

CPU Temperature Under Load

36.0° C

GPU Core Clock Rate

900MHz

GPU Effective Memory Clock Rate

1.05GHz

Description

This was a Father / Son project for my 11 year old son. He's got an interest in general technology, so I thought we'd take a day to build a new machine for him following his birthday earlier this month.

He did most of the work himself, and virtually all of the photography you see here. Sorry about that. Worst build photos ever.

However the build came out very nice and clean after some significant time spend policing up the wires with zip ties and velcro strips. Moving some of them around was a bear.

My son had fun and learned a lot, though. He was really excited, and grateful for the time spent working with him on something like this.

It'll be a good memory for both of us, and it's useful now! I actually made him do his homework on it first, before he could play any games!

Thanks everybody for all of your help and suggestions.

Comments
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Me and my dad built a computer ,form old parts lying around the house, when i was 11 ,but a year later and a week before Christmas he died of a massive heart attack , im 16 now and i still have that computer in pristine condition and now im gonna build my own computer pretty soon this brings tears to my eyes and im not afraid to admit that

My dad did the same thing with me, just one day he took me to microcenter and told me that my budget was $1000 and I could get what I wanted. You have no idea how happy this made me. When we built it, it was some great bonding time.

My dad got me a laptop off Craigslist...
It didn't work... Cost him like $50 though.
I can't even imagine what my reaction would be if he gave me $1000 to make anything I wanted. That's because he wont.
I guess working towards money is better anyway, which is what I'm doing now.

He's a lucky kid. Wish I had a dad like that when I was younger... oh yeah I did. He gave me his IBM 286. Loved playing all the Sierra games on that machine. Really nice build. Hope to do something like that with my son when he gets just a little older.

Looked at your build, and I think you should post it as a completed build now.
It looks great, except I would swap the 7950 for a gtx 660 ti, since LinusTechTips tested it to be more powerful in most cases, as well as the fact that Nidia's GPUs take less power now (not sure about the power requirements of the 7950, so excuse me if I'm wrong).
Also, I don't think think you need an Asus Sabertooth, but that's up to you if you want a lot of future upgradability. Other than that, great build!

i updated it, this computer is gonna be used for gaming n editing, want it to last me a long time, current computer is 6 years old n it plays l4d2 on low-medium settings which is fine by me. right now im at $1300 but that doesnt include tax n shipping. only thing im confused about is the memory n storage im not sure which one to get i just randomly picked one.

Where's the SSD? How come the i-5 costs more? Lol Just keep his case he wants, since it's cheaper. You have no CPU cooler, the PSU they have is cheaper... You got them an overpriced motherboard too... Shoulda went for an Asrock X4 (Whatever the name is.) I don't know about the keyboard... Looks like they have another personal choice of theirs. I don't think you really helped as much

Oh... Well there's some friendly advice for you :D
Keep your keyboard and stuff, I guess... Just think out your parts, all I have is the motherboard that'll give you an extra 100 bucks to work with on your SSD, or hyper 212 evo (If you're into the after-market CPU cooler) Or get a 2tb HDD for like 20 more dollars.

I went looking around and stuff... And I found some stuff that can be a bit better. You can choose the take off the SSD, and have 2tb's for 20 more dollars, get a after-market CPU cooler, and save 40 dollars. Or keep it with the optical drive, and go about 30 dollars above your budget.

i originally had the 660 ti on my list but for some reason i swapped it, also there are 50 different 660s so i wasnt sure which one to get plus im trying to stay below $1300 but i could exceed it if have to.

I’d just go with the graphics card that fits what games you are going to play. Nvidia is better if you’re going to play games like BF3. AMD does better on some other games. Overall though, the 7950 has a much higher overclocking potential.

Really nice build from what I can tell, would you or anyone look at my profile and look at my saved builds and tell me if that build is good or not? You're welcome to message me. This will be my first build.

What are the advantages to using the Intel Core i5-3570K as opposed to the AMD FX8350? Is it worth the added price of both the processor and the generally more expensive Intel motherboards? I'm accumulating parts for my first build and was wondering if some of you pros would be able to give me some advice. Thanks

He's a very lucky child, my dad is way past our time, and was born in a poor country, and came here with nothing, so i'm alone on my build. Very nice job on the PC, it looks great, and has great specs for a good price. Cheers :D

I had to buy every thing myself. I was a little short, so I asked my dad for $20 dollars so I could get a hard drive, he said I would have to earn it myself even though I had just spent all $500 of my hard earned money

i could tell he took all the photos even before i read the description because when i was 11, all my photos looked exactly like this.... (although not of cool builds like this).
well done
way to get em started early!!

I wish my dad did things like this with me... im still a young person, not a kid but yea. The most we do is watch movies together, i ask him if he'd help me get the components and build it with me but he... he doesnt give a ****.

Do have a quick question. In terms of the RPMs of the Hard drive I had someone recommend getting a 10k RPM instead of 7200 RPM. i wasnt sure how the difference would affect the computer. Also, great dad man i am 16 and i am building my first computer by myself. Will be interesting no doubt nice build and keep your son interested. I want to be one of those guys that runs around to peoples houses and helps with their computers. Keep up the good work :D